Nagasaki survivors

By the time the islanders had been evacuated, some had absorbed a radiation dose of as much as 190 rads, four times the average dosage of Nagasaki survivors who had been within a mile and a quarter of the hypocenter. A more prolonged exposure could have resulted in almost immediate death. Nevertheless, a variety of serious clinical consequences occurred. 

A significant body of data defines the relationship between radiation dose and cancer incidence. This dataset is primarily from a study of the atomic bomb survivors from Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan but also includes data from animal studies and other sources of information. While additional data are continuously collected and... 

A great deal was learned from the atomic bomb survivors. The US military dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945 and a second on Nagasaki, Japan, three days later. The bombs used two different types of radioactive material, 235U in the first bomb and 239Pu in the second. It is estimated that... 

ICHIMARU, M., ISHIMARU, T., AND Belskv J.L. (1978). Incidence of leukemia in atomic bomb survivors belonging to a fixed cohort in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1950-71. Radiation dose, years after exposure, age at exposure, and type of leukemia, Japan J. Radiat. Res. 19,262. 

ISHIMARU, T., Hoshino, T, Ichimaru, M., Okada, H., Tomiyasu, T, Tsuchi-MOTO, T., AND Yamamoto, T. (1969). Leukemia in Atomic Bomb Survivors, Hiroshima-Nagasaki, October 1, 1950 - September 30, I960, ABCC TR 25-... 

ISHIMARU, T., ClHAK, R.W., LAND, C.E., STEER, A., AND YAMADA, A. (1975). Lung cancer at autopsy in A-bomb survivors and controls, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1961-1970 II. Smoking, occupation, and A-bomb exposure, Cancer 36, 1723. 

Tokunaga, M., Norman, J.E., Jr, Asano, M., Tokuoka, S., Ezaki, H., NishimORI, I., AND TSUJI, Y. (1979). Malignant breast tumors among atomic bomb survivors, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1950-1974, J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 62,1347. 

MABUCHI, K., SODA, M., RON, E., TOKUNGA, M., OCHIKUBO, S., SUGI-MOTO, S., IKEDA, T., TERASAKI, M., PRESTON, D.L. and THOMPSON, D.E. (1994). Cancer incidence in atomic bomb survivors. Part I Use of the tumor registries in Hiroshima and Nagasaki for incidence studies, Radiat. Res. 137, S1-S16. 

Leukaemia was the first cancer to be linked with exposure to radiation from the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Excess relative risk for leukaemia was higher than for any other neoplasm in bomb survivors and for people exposed as children. Radiation-related leukaemia started to occur two to three years after the bombing, reached its peak within six to eight years, and has declined steadily since then. For people exposed as adults, the excess risk was lower than that of people exposed as children, but the excess risk appears to have persisted throughout the followup period (LARC, 2000). Small increases in childhood leukaemia may also have occurred in some populations that were exposed to... 

Ionizing radiation is a known environmental cause of female breast cancer. Breast cancer risk is significantly elevated in female survivors of the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but varies significantly depending on age at the time of radiation exposure. Relative risk at estimated exposure levels of 1 Sv was approximately 3-4 for women exposed before 10 years of age or between 10 and 20 years of age, but decreased to approximately 2 in women irradiated between 20 and 40 years of age and decreased even further in women exposed after 40 years of age (Boice et al., 1996). 

Neel and Schull were architects of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission study of survivor populations at Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Beatty 1988 Lindee 1994). Other notables among the twenty-three attendees included Curt Stern from UC-Berkeley and Milislav Demerec from Brookhaven National Laboratory. The conference proceedings are published in Schull (1962). 

Lindee, M, Susan, 1992, What is a mutation Identifying heritable change in the offspring of survivors at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Journal of the History of Biology 25 231-255. 

Land CE, Shimosato Y, Saccomaimo G, et al. 1993. Radiation-associated lung cancer. A comparison of the histology of lung Cancers in uranium miners and survivors of the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Radiation Research 1 34 234-243. 

A wealth of new information about radiation exposure over the past decade prompted the revision of the BSS. First and foremost, a study of the biological effects of radiation doses received by the survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki suggested that exposure to low-level radiation was more likely to cause harm than previously estimated. Other developments—notably the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in 1979 and that at Chernobyl in 1986, with its unprecedented transboundary contamination—had a profound effect on the public perception of the potential danger from radiation exposure. There were serious accidents with radiation sources used in medicine and industry in Mexico, Brazil, El Salvador and other countries. In addition, more has been discovered about natural radiation—such as household radon—as a cause of concern for health. Finally, natural radiation exposures of workers such as miners, who were not thought of as radiation workers, were discovered to be much higher than had been realised. 

It is of note that this considerable reliance on laboratory animal data for risk assessment purposes for enviromnental chemicals is in sharp contrast to the situation with ionizing radiation. The cancer risk estimates for ionizing radiation (X rays and y rays) are based to a very great extent on human tumor data obtained from the Life Stage Study (LSS) of the atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan... 

Figure 24.2. Rate of leukemia deaths in survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. From Heyssel et al. (1960), with permission.

Wenz F, Steinvorth S, Lohr F, et al Prospective evaluation of delayed central nervous system (CNS) toxicity of hyperfractionated total body irradiation (TBI). Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 48 1497-1501, 2000 Yamada M, Kodama K, Wong FL The long-term psychological sequelae of atomic-bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in The Medical Basis for Radiation-Accident Preparedness, III The Psychological Perspective. Edited by Ricks RC, Berger ME, O Hara FM Jr. New York, Elsevier, 1991, pp 155-163... 

Tens of thousands of survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who were uninjured by the initial blast, found they had not escaped the bomb after all. Within days, their hair began to fall out and their gums began to... 

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